Essay on "Prejudice Reflecting on the Power Point"

Essay 4 pages (1444 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Prejudice

Reflecting on the Power Point and the discussions, I cannot help but feel depressed -- it seems that everyone is just so lost, or looking for something -- an identity, happiness, a way, a place, contentment. Everyone has his or her own story -- and some articulate it; some tell it of their own accord; some tell it out of compulsion. Some are prompted, some are forthcoming naturally -- but why is there a common thread through all of the stories? -- regardless of race, ethnicity, background, place, age, sex? Why does everyone strike me as sad, lost, longing for something -- pretending, attempting, trying to be content with what they have… Trying to be whole

I do not know really what they have -- what any of them have…if anything. Maybe some are blessed. Maybe some miss this blessing. (How some obtain it and others miss it, I do not know.) Even in conversation, in heart-to-hearts, you only learn so much. Yes, people reveal themselves when they speak of themselves -- and sometimes they reveal more than they really know… You can speak of yourself and try to identify yourself -- but sometimes the things you don't say, the things you don't express say more about you than the things you do say… Why does Dr. Claudia talk so much about her past, about the places she has seen and traveled? I know a girl like this -- she is always quick to tell everyone which cities she has seen and how much she knows about them -- as if she were making up for something else lacking in her -- or as if she really wants to sound as though she were an expert… It is sad to hear her talk so much. Dr. Claudia sounds sad. It was sad to hear her say that she moved so far away to live in Formentera (she tries to cover it by making a joke -- "Hey, it was the 60s!" -- but she doesn't cover it with me; I can't help feeling pained by that). It is sad to think of her looking for something, doing all that wandering all that time, attempting to learn different languages, to fit in, to understand other cultures, other people, herself… Why is understanding so hard? Why do we know so little -- not only of others but of our own selves? Dr. Claudia tried to cover so much in what she said, trying to show us or others that she did things for a reason -- because she wasn't happy here, or she was bored there, but now she's happy… Why? Is she happy? I don't know, she says she is… She has a son now, a husband, grand children -- that is good… But even all of that -- it will go

And the others: Zhaohua Gao. I did not even know he was a guy until the end and he spoke of his wife. I pictured him as a girl the whole time -- and I thought, oh, she's so sad. My opinion did not change when he finally identified himself as a man, but it altered or shifted somehow. I felt sad but in a different way -- I don't know how -- like I wanted to comfort him, and if she had been a girl I do not know how I would have comforted her. There is something so strange about us all. The Power Point, for example -- all those different pictures -- so strange and wild and common. My reaction to them all was the same: What? I could not understand what I was looking at -- whether it was a picture of two Middle Eastern friends smiling on a couch or a picture of two women kissing. I did not understand any of it. People from different places, showing me the tiniest aspect of themselves -- a moment, a glimpse, a shadow of personality, of soul. What am I to do with that? What is there for me to say?

The same is true for the fill-in-the-blank exercises. That so-and-so man is so hot. That so-and-so woman is so fat. I could not make sense of it. What were the words to be used to fill-in-the-blanks? White, Black, Armenian, Latino, Chinese -- what are these? I… READ MORE

How to Reference "Prejudice Reflecting on the Power Point" Essay in a Bibliography

Related Essays:

Power, Interdependence, and Nonstate Actors Research Paper

Interdependence in World Politics

Interdependence in global politics suggests that actors have a correlation or a connection such that one factor influences one of the aspects, on a single occasion… read more

Research Paper 18 pages (5243 words) Sources: 15 Style: APA Topic: Government / Politics

---

Pride and Prejudice Mrs. Dalloway Term Paper

Mrs.Dalloway/Pride & Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice and Mrs. Dalloway are both British novels written by women during times of great change. Jane Austen and Virginia Woolf each address the rules… read more

Term Paper 9 pages (2778 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

Marlboro Man Migrant Prejudice Essay

Hurston, more than any of the other three authors, yearns to be recognized not as African-American, but as a human being. She does not want to fragment herself into artificial… read more

Essay 7 pages (2280 words) Sources: 1+ Topic: Race / Ethnic Studies / Racism

---

Racial Prejudices Thesis

Racial Prejudice

The Creation and Perpetuation of racial Prejudice: The automatic Response of a Racial Society

Most societies today are multicultural and multiethnic, containing individuals with different geographic, historic, and… read more

Thesis 4 pages (1078 words) Sources: 7 Style: MLA Topic: Race / Ethnic Studies / Racism

---

Frankenstein the 19th Century English Novel and Realism Pride and Prejudice Great Expectations Wuthering Heights Term Paper

Realism in Literature

Realism and the objective interpretation of life in the works of Mary Shelley, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Emily Bronte

The birth of the genre of realism… read more

Term Paper 3 pages (913 words) Sources: 0 Topic: Literature / Poetry

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>